The American Revolution's charismatic figure was Thomas Payne, not George Washington, and I would say that it met the pattern. It was Thomas Payne who through the crisis papers and probable authorship of the declaration of independence itself convinced the thirteen colonies to change their goal from eventual reconciliation and settlement on good terms to establishing an Enlightenment state based on the protection of life, liberty and the persuit of property, and the elimination of absolutist tyrants. His personality was not fit for actual governance and played little part in post-revolution America. He was invited over to France where he helped instigate the French Revolution and became a member of parliment, although he was powerless to prevent or stop the horror that was unleashed there.
My take on some historical religious/social/political movements:
The best strategy for complex social movements is not honest rationality, because rational, practical approaches don't generate enthusiasm. A radical social movement needs one charismatic radical who enunciates appealing, impractical ideas, and another figure who can appropriate all of the energy and devotion generated by the first figure's idealism, yet not be held to their impractical ideals. It's a two-step process that is almost necessary, to protect the pretty ideals that generate popular enthusiasm from the grit and grease of institution and government. Someone needs to do a bait-and-switch. Either the original vision must be appropriated and bent to a different purpose by someone practical, or the original visionary must be dishonest or self-deceiving.
There are exceptions to this pattern that, I think, prove the rule when you look at them more closely:
And then there are just exceptions:
One interesting aspect of the pattern is its hysteresis. Once idealism has been successfully co-opted, the resulting organization can continue to siphon that credibility indefinitely, while dismissing its more radical demands.